


The Broken or The Holy

by TheGreatandPowerless



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Other, big gay rocks, self indulgent, small gay rocks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:19:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5652226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatandPowerless/pseuds/TheGreatandPowerless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ulexite, a guard among the ranks of Yellow Diamond, serves as a member of the brute squad and a jailer. When a political criminal is put under her care, she deals with more than she bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [d0nkarnage](https://archiveofourown.org/users/d0nkarnage/gifts).



> Hi everyone, this is just a super self-indulgent fic for my wife and I of our fangems.  
> But thanks for reading! <3

Fifteen steps marked the distance between cell block seventeen and eighteen. Ulexite, one of many, had been assigned to the cells for more cycles than she could remember. The prisoners were on escort to a penitentiary planet off Homeworld that was supposed to be more vicious than any punishment brute force could offer. And she was _very_ familiar with brute force. 

Ulexite had passed more gems through her hands than most and roughly half had been blessed with the good fortune to not be crushed between her fingers. One of her superior officers, a young disciplinary Star Sapphire, had often asked if she wanted to keep any of the shards as trophies.

She was one of very few who didn't.

This day marked the eighth day of the new cycle and the cells were as quiet as ever, the soft click of her heels echoing through the silence.

When she ws first assigned to her new route, she had almost hoped to form some sort of bond with their captives; get additional information, persuade them into atoning for their crimes before the time was too late, seize the opportunity to learn more about the universe.

But a deformed Quartz put an end to that. 

Tiger's Eye. 

She remembered it too vividly.

Tiger's Eye had been a survivor of an attack on a host planet, the sole survivor of an attack. The sole survivor of an attack that should have been easily overpowered. 

_"If you're not going to speak to me, I'll see you never speak again,"_ Yellow Diamond had said. Ulexite thought of those words whenever she had to give an answer. Withholding information wasn't worth her life. 

But Tiger's Eye said nothing.

 _"I've got Ulexites here, you'll be dust between her fingers before you can blink."_ Ulexite preemptively leveled her hands over her gem like the rest of the rank. She knew her place. She knew her role.

But Tiger's Eye said nothing.

But Yellow Diamond soothed herself, a single gesture enough to have each Ulexite return her hands to her sides.

_"Even my anger is wasted on you. If you refuse to speak to me, your death is too valuable a reward."_

Tiger's Eye said nothing then, said nothing when escorted to her cell, and had said nothing since.

Ulexite had seen it before. It was shock. It was a mental shutdown. Something had happened there, and it was likely that Tiger's Eye would never speak of it again. 

But you couldn't just tell a Diamond that. 

The gem thought herself kind. She had always thought that she could have been a diplomat, if she had been smarter, and thought that her kindness would show through if she spoke to Tiger's Eye as though she weren't a criminal, but the victim she likely was.

The other Ulexites said she killed the other members of her team - an Aquamarine and Rubellite - but Ulexite didn't believe that. Squads of unlike gems were generally put together based on their compatibility on and off the battlefield.

"Hello," had been the first thing Ulexite said to Tiger's Eye. It had meant very little what she said first as the Quartz wasn't likely to listen. 

"I'm sorry you're here," came next but drew no response. Ulexite sat on the other side of the barrier, looking at the warrior who had curled against the wall and sat in silence awaiting their punishment. 

"I don't think you did it." She said softly, knowing that other convicts were likely to talk of their conversation if they had any hope of release. "And I can't help but-"

And Tiger's Eye charged, ever silent.

Ulexite had almost hoped she would scream when she slammed herself full force into the barrier, it would have meant that some part of her was still working, but she remained silent, skin seering and smoking until her form destabilized and she retreated into her gem. Ulexite had been foolish enough to try to reach for her in a moment of passion, scalding her own hands before she retreated.

She had never seen someone force injury on themselves in the holding cells. 

That had been enough to discourage her from wanting to speak to the criminals unprovoked. Faces came and went as they passed over planets, new gems appearing in the places of ones who were surely banished to solitary planets or killed.

But at least the ones who had been kept under her watch didn't die at her hands. 

Too many gems had been crushed between her fingers. Enough that she hardly felt it anymore.

Though, she never forgot. Ulexite could remember every shard that passed through her hands.

A few Rubies. A few too many Pearls. Two Quartzes. Zircons. Peridots. Idocrase. A Beryl. Over forty gems in total had died at her hands. 

Her heels clicked, each echoing _clack_ brought a name and face to her memory. She mourned their deaths more than the lives they might have led. How many Pearls had just been pretty pets? How many Idocrase just relied the wrong information? How many Quartzes had let an enemy go alive?

And for the first time in many cycles, the silence was interrupted. 

The silence was interrupted by the soft, nearly overlooked whimpering of a small, black gem who had nestled himself into the corner of his cell. 

Ulexite reminded herself of her role, slamming her fist against the wall that bordered the barrier. The small gem flinched, pressing his back into the corner of the cell when he turned to face her. 

He was so _small_ , unforgettably small. Barely half her size. And crying. Seeing him reminded Ulexite of pain. It'd been so long since she'd remembered pain. 

Her eyes drifted to the label on the wall.

_Onyx._

No listed crime.

No listed sentence or drop off.

"That's enough, Onyx." She said, lacing her voice with the thickest layer of venom she could stand. 

She hadn't imagined that he'd cry harder.

Or that he'd be smiling.


	2. Nature Boy

Ulexite stood paralyzed; partially out of fear, partially out of shock. Onyx's crying was unlikely to draw any more attention that it already had, but if another guard had heard her and heard him _continue_ to cry while she neglected to put it an end to it.... Well, that'd be another story.

"I-I said enough!" Her voice nearly cracked. She couldn't believe she was struggling like this. How long had it been since she really spoke to another gem? Surely, not so long that she couldn't ask someone to stop crying.

Through his tears, Onyx managed a weak but unusually optimistic response. 

"I-I apologize, I-I didn't mean to be a nuisance." His small hands pushed tears and dampened hair from his face, and Ulexite ached with sympathy. 

He was small. Not just small next to her, most gems were small next to her if they weren't fused, but _small._ His hands were small, his nose, his lips, his torso, his legs.... Everything but his hair, which nearly had the volume to swallow him whole. 

Ulexite looked at the placard next to his cell in an attempt to feign disinterest. 

"Keep it down..." She felt herself hesitating. That softness, the same softness that always made her feel weak, came creeping to the forefront of her mind. She wanted to make sure Onyx was okay.

In truth it was practically required of her to assure he was okay. What would Yellow Diamond say if she were to summon him and find him unsatisfactory for exile? Surely he had to be well enough that it would still feel like emotionally breaking him, wouldn't he?

"What _exactly_ is all this crying about?"

He still sniffled, but spoke very clearly through his tears. "It's nothing to trouble yourself with, I... It's just been a long time since I've heard someone call me by name."

The ache grew stronger. 

"I see." Ulexite tried to keep her voice firm, but knew she had failed when the corners of Onyx's mouth turned up in a small, relieved smile. 

"Ulexite, right?"

She pursed her lips. At what point did courtesy become fraternizing? 

"CAC Cut-H423." She muttered in response. Having no facets to speak of, her ranks were lower and numbers were higher. 

She never thought she'd seen another unfaceted gem. Onyx's gem, deep black and cabochon with the slightest iridescence, looked nearly raw without true facets. She wasn't familiar enough with his caste to know what was typical. 

Onyx caught her staring.

"CAC," he began. "Cut-19MA."

Ulexite struggled with trying to find a way out of the conversation. Criminals weren't gems. They weren't people, they didn't deserve attention or acknowledgement or the chance to retain their ranks, or even to continue using names but there she stood, in front of an Onyx she knew too much about, on the very of desperate to learn more. 

"Onyx," she repeated, noticing that the gem held himself back in an attempt to keep from crying again. But the tears rushed forward as she continued. "CAC, Cut-19MA, you must be reminded that you are a prisoner here. You should be thankful you're not in a mass holding cell and that you haven't been shattered." She felt her chest tighten at the idea of Onyx's shards passing between her fingers. She balled them into a fist, closing them around the phantom fragments. 

"Do not put yourself where I have to return and remind you of the positions that you _could_ be in." She cracked the knuckles on her open hand for effect. It was enough to make him flinch.

But he still showed kindness when he spoke again. "Yes, I understand. I'm sorry."

Walking away from the cell was one of the hardest things Ulexite could imagine doing. The looming thought at the back of her head that told her she'd be going back made it worse.


End file.
